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How to: Picking Up Stitches in the Middle of Stockinette

I apologize for the longest blog post title ever. I couldn't think of how to explain that in fewer words.

For those of you who are interested in knitting the Belfast Hoodie (I just need buttons!) you will need to know how to pick up stitches in the middle of the row. Sure you could probably knit the pockets seperately and sew them on but challenge your inner knitter!

Now, I consider myself a pretty well versed knitter but I couldn't for the life of me remember how to pick up stitches in the middle of a row. I've done a Wonderful Wallaby and know that you can achieve this by running a strand of yarn behind your work and pick up the stitches through your knitting with a crochet hook. But if you know me, you know I want to do things the "hard" way… so bear with me.

Surprisingly Google didn't really turn up tutorial results as easy as I thought so I decided to help others and put one right here. If still photos aren't your thing I added a video at the bottom so feel free to scroll on down!

First, take the time to notice how your stitches are made. In this case I want to get the ladder in the middle of my stitch. Not the one between the V – the one In the V – you could think of it as the top of the V.

Pick up the top of the V aka the Ladder in the middle of the stitch from the bottom.

Wrap your yarn around.

And Pull it through.

Pulling it through is definitely the trickiest part. I suggest keeping your working yarn taut which will help it catch under the ladder.

Go to the next column, insert your needle from under the ladder in the V, wrap the yarn around and pull though. Soon you'll have a row of stitches that look like this.

The row that you are picking up will look a little tight but that's ok! It will get looser as you do a few rows.

For those of you who need the video:

Alright! Go and pick up your stitches like the knitting champs you all are.

PS. That was my very first video on the ol' blog. Hope you enjoyed it. And yes, that's what I sound like! HELLO. Thanks to Mr. H for the excellent videography.